UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

UNAIDS The First 10 Years114Young military personnel are especially vulnerable. Half of all new sexually transmittedinfections occur among 15 to 24-year-olds, which is the most sexually active age group. Yeteducation of this age group (especially uniformed services) promises to slow the spread ofsexually transmitted infections, including HIV.UNAIDS’ work with the uniformed services recognizes the importance of establishingstrong, sustainable partnerships with security forces as well as with other relevant partners.It is also vital to obtain political commitment at the highest level, from ministries of defenceand of the interior.It was very hardto get seniorleadership in themilitary to admitthat they had aproblem.Kristofferson initially found this task challenging, as countries were understandablyreluctant to provide prevalence figures among the uniformed services. “It’s very strategicinformation. If I were Minister of Defence would I give that to you? It was very hard to getsenior leadership in the military to admit that they had a problem”.However, he and his colleagues persisted and obtained results. A successful pilotprogramme in Ukraine led to the development and institutionalization of a formal HIV anddrug use prevention education programme for the military. UNAIDS has now helped toimplement similar programmes in 106 countries, reaching around 7.5 million young menand women in uniform, estimated Kristofferson.In every country soldiersand peacekeepers are atrisk of HIV infection.Soldiers like these inNigeria have beengiven cards with basicinformation on AIDS.UNAIDS